NCC and Wright plan for Early College program

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, September 23, 2008

STAMFORD -- J.M. Wright Technical High School will be the site of a new Early College program, starting next year.

The program, which is a collaboration with Norwalk Community College (NCC), was approved Sept. 3 by the State Board of Education.

"We will be phasing in new programs over time," said Superintendent Abigail Hughes of the Connecticut Technical High School system. "It will be a community college curriculum."

Wright, she said, plans to phase the program in over the next three years, adding three new areas of study to the program -- facilities management, business management and film and video production -- and revamping the school's classic trades.

"Culinary will become catering and our hairdressing technology will become hairdressing and fashion design in support of the movie industry," said Hughes.

Neither the state technical schools nor NCC know exactly what the program is going to look like yet.

"The next step is trying to work on specifics," said Hughes. "We'll start developing curriculum."

Curriculum, according to NCC President David Levinson, will be handled by the technical schools. NCC has pledged support to help Wright students enter the college.

"My hope is that I can get enough of my budget to cover tuition waivers for Wright Tech students," he said.

Levinson and his deans envision J.M. Wright as a place where students in ninth grade can -- with the help of counselors, parents and teachers -- plot out a career path that will take him or her to an Associate's degree in six years, and possibly propel students directly into the Connecticut University system. He pictures it as a place where high school students can take college courses and where NCC students act as role models for the high school students.

Levinson is also suggesting that NCC -- which already has construction, automotive, culinary and health courses -- combine its resources with the shops at J.M. Wright, possibly also offering the high school students access to NCC's EMT, paramedic and fire technology courses.

The partnership will also allow NCC to use Wright's building as a Stamford site for night classes. Recently the college closed down its site at Rippowam Middle School for budgetary reasons.

Once the program is phased in, said Hughes, enrollment ought to be boosted to 600 students; the school is currently operating with 252 students, according to Wright's new principal, Joseph LaVorgna.

The state board vote comes several months after NCC first approached the state board about a possible NCC-Wright collaboration.

On April 9, Levinson proposed to the state board that NCC take over Wright. While that idea was rejected by the board at an early May meeting, both Levinson and state administrators believed that NCC is likely to partner with the high school to create an early college. There have been several proposals on the table for Wright, which for almost two decades suffered declining enrollment as a four-year state technical high school in lower Fairfield County. Wright and the Stamford community have been fighting closure by the state for about five years. Last fall, however, the state board of education wanted to shift the school from its traditional four-year format to a dual-enrollment program -- high school students would leave their home high school to attend Wright Tech for a year or two for training in a trade while pursuing a high school diploma.

The board was supposed to vote on the measure in December, but former principal Sidney Abramowitz, the parents and the community railed against such a plan, gaining the trade school a year to up enrollment and explore other options. After that decision was made, the state board of education allowed Wright to begin seeking applicants for the 2008-09 school year.

LaVorgna, who began work at Wright last month, says he knows little about the early college program.

Now Playing:

"I'm new; I really don't understand that model enough to give you a professional answer," he said when asked about the program. He and Levinson will meet on Oct. 3 to begin planning for the early college.